Born in Fort Worth, Tarrant County, Tex., December 22, 1922; attended the public schools of Fort Worth and Dallas, Tex.; student at Weatherford (Tex.) College, 1939-1940, and the University of Texas, 1940-1941; enlisted in the United States Army Air Force in December 1941; commissioned in 1942 and flew combat missions in the South Pacific; was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross; partner in a national trade extension and advertising firm; member of the Texas State house of representatives, 1947-1949; mayor of Weatherford, Tex., 1950-1954; served as president of the League of Texas Municipalities in 1953; delegate, Democratic National Conventions, 1956, 1960, 1964, and 1968, and Convention chairman in 1988; elected as a Democrat to the Eighty-fourth and to the seventeen succeeding Congresses and served from January 3, 1955, until his resignation on June 30, 1989; majority leader (Ninety-fifth through Ninety-ninth Congresses), Speaker of the House of Representatives (One Hundredth and One Hundred First Congresses); is a resident of Fort Worth, Tex.